Schoodic Peninsula, Maine

Overlooked by many travelers, this is a fine spot for dramatic photographs of surf crashing over the big rocks. It’s remote, however—although it’s just 7 miles from Mount Desert Island across Frenchman Bay, it’s a 50-mile drive to get here. The National Park Service gave this region an overhaul during the later Obama years, installing a fine new campground and substantially expanded trail system. A pleasing one-way loop road hooks around the point (no park entry pass or fee required), winding along the water and through forests of spruce and fir. Good views of the mountains of Acadia open up across Frenchman Bay; you can also see part of a historic naval station housed on the point. Park near Schoodic Point, the tip of the peninsula, and explore salmon-colored rocks that plunge into the ocean. Schoodic Woods Campground, a pristine, 94-site campground at the top of the peninsula, has an amphitheater, ranger programs, and a handful of secluded walk-in sites (some with terrific views of MDI’s peaks across the water). Camping fees range from $22 for the hike-in sites to $40 for full electric/water RV hookups (open late May to early September, reservations necessary in midsummer). Schoodic Woods is at the heart of the trail system, with new footpaths that extend all the way down the peninsula (via the bald-topped Buck Cove Mountain and 440-foot Schoodic Head), as well as an 8-mile network of smooth, occasionally hilly bike paths.